food

Normally I don't really make New Year's resolutions. I don't like them. I feel like by the end of January I'm already not doing any of the things I vowed to do for the whole year and that just makes me feel like a failure, and who wants to feel like a failure, right?

Regardless, this year Braed and I made some "goals" for the new year. I know I know, that's basically the same thing, BUT our goals are just for January, then we'll re-evaluate for February, etc. That way they feel much more attainable and are less of a commitment. Whatever works, right?

One of our goals for January was to make more food at home (which also tied in to one of our other goals: to take control of our budget and eat out less). One of the hardest parts of eating at home is deciding what food to make and having the ingredients to make it. To help with that I planned out a menu (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for every day of the week for two weeks at a time. I designed the menu so Sunday-Thursday dinner left-overs could be used for lunch the next day, too.

To make the menu I pulled out all our cookbooks...and then just used recipes I'd found on Pinterest. Somehow along the way I discovered this food blog called Budget Bytes.

Every recipe we've made from her blog has been AMAZING. Every. Single. One. Basically, I don't know why we go anywhere else for recipes. Some of them look a little fancy, but they are all really affordable (she breaks down each recipe into total cost and cost per serving so you don't have to take my word for it) and they're all actually really easy to make.

Here are some of our favorites:

$1.95/serving

$2.03/serving
(we've also made this with salsa instead of
 Rotel and it was maybe even better)

$1.16/serving
(we used rice instead of bulgur and it was great!)

$1.29/serving

$1.35/serving

So...yes. Go. Go make some delicious food of your own. And you don't even have to thank me for it. ;)

new years in brooklyn

I spent New Years Eve and Day in Brooklyn again this year with my friend Tess and her family. Her friend has a tradition where you throw hot wax in a bowl of ice water and then how it freezes is supposed to tell you something about your future that year. This was mine:

Any thoughts on what it could mean....?

new years in brooklyn

I spent New Years Eve in Brooklyn with the Nelsons, some of my favorite people ever. We ate delicious food (homemade tomato soup, bread, cheese, grapes, pie...the list goes on), played games, and basically partied. About ten minutes to midnight we all put on our coats and trooped up to the park for midnight fireworks. We made it right to the edge of the park when they started and proceeded to walk down the middle of the snow and ice covered road to the middle of the park while the fireworks continued to intermittently light up the path. Someone commented that it felt a little bit like it was the end of the world and all of us there walking in the park were the only survivors making our way toward the safe zone. And it did feel like that a little bit; the feelings of unity and triumph were in the air.

But the part I remember best was right as we were entering the park it struck midnight and we all pulled out little zip lock bags full of twelve grapes we'd packed at home and began to stuff them into our mouths. We finished, then began to chew them, almost choking on the juice as it ran down our throats, then waved our zip lock bags like flags triumphantly in the air as we walked in a line into the park.

Later we threw wax to tell the future for the next year. You melt down wax in a double boiler-type way, then take a ladle and pour it into a bowl full of ice water. The idea is that whatever shape the wax takes will in some way be connected to what will happen to you in the new year. I'm still not really sure what mine looks like. Any thoughts?